Heimgartner targets AGP after career-best start

Andre Heimgartner’s sights are set on Albert Park after a career-best start to a season for the Brad Jones Racing spearhead.

Heimgartner left the Thrifty Newcastle 500 equal fourth in the championship with Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds.

The BJR ace was one of six drivers — along with Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, Brodie Kostecki, Jack Le Brocq and Mark Winterbottom — to have top 10 results in both races.

Heimgartner crossed the line seventh in both races, and was elevated to fifth in Race 1 when both Red Bull Ampol Camaros were disqualified.

Sunday’s drive was notably considering Heimgartner started 13th, and gained six positions.

Only Kostecki (15th to sixth) and BJR teammate Bryce Fullwood (19th to 11th) made more spots in the race.

The Newcastle round comes ahead of Heimgartner's cameo in an AMAC Porsche at this weekend's Sepang 12 Hours.

“It was an interesting weekend, for us it was up and down,” Heimgartner told the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

“We’re equal fourth in the championship, which is really good for us.

“We’re happy considering we lacked a bit of pace in qualifying starting 13th, but managed to come home seventh.

“Overall, a good learning weekend, good for the sport, and we didn’t have many problems, which was nice.”

Heading to the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint, Heimgartner is just 69 points from leader Mostert.

A year ago, he was 105 points from the lead in eighth. A shocking second round in Tasmania saw Heimgartner plummet to 15th, 306 points off the pace.

It got even worse at Albert Park, with Heimgartner crashing out following a collision with Will Brown.

Heimgartner’s Albert Park race results read 15th, DNF, 18th and 17th — but it triggered a superb run of 12 consecutive top 10 finishes.

When asked if there’s anything he can carry over into the Grand Prix, Heimgartner said: “A little bit… but it’s very, very different, it’s SMP style.

“We’ll have to wait and see. We struggled there a bit last year, we had some issues with the car and didn’t have much pace.

“This year we’ll be trying to maximise what we have… we’ll see how we go.”

Fullwood, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith are 13th, 21st and 23rd heading to the Grand Prix, but team owner Jones was pleased to leave Newcastle with four straight cars.

“Really happy with the performance of the guys,” Jones told the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

“I think they’ll be great down there [at Albert Park], big open circuit, they’ll suit that.

“They’re really close in terms of speed at the moment, we’ve got so much to learn still.

“Little things can trip you up, as we’ve seen here the last two days. Certainly for BJR, great result that all cars are pretty straight."

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint on March 30-April 2.